Brisbane NRL coach Wayne Bennett has urged the club's fans not to expect miracles from prize recruit Anthony Milford, promising he will reach his sparkling best in the No.6 jersey.
Like the rest of the Broncos, Milford eased some of the criticism on him with an improved performance in Brisbane's 10-2 win over Cronulla on Friday night at Remondis Stadium.
While Bennett's men were disjointed against Cronulla, they showed guts defending their own line and bagged the win thanks to two lucky tries.
Milford had a mixed night - he looked dangerous on occasions but came up with two errors inside the Broncos' 20m zone and looked rushed on occasions when he took on the line.
The teenage prodigy was brought to Brisbane to wear the No.6 jersey made famous by the likes of Wally Lewis, Kevin Walters and Darren Lockyer.
Following Brisbane's round-one loss to South Sydney, there were questions over whether the side would be better served with Milford playing at fullback while Darius Boyd recovers from a knee injury.
However, Bennett urged patience with Milford and had confidence in him to fulfil his potential.
"(Milford) was better than last week - he'll get there," Bennett said.
"I thought they were all better than last week. We got little glimpses here and there.
"So that's my aim right now, just to improve each week."
By his own admissions, Milford had an up-and-down night against the Sharks.
"My own performance was alright. I was a bit rushed with the ball," he said.
"I had a few drops but just getting involved, I tried to do as much as I could to get into the game."
He said the biggest learning curve had been defending in the front line where he was likely to be targeted.
"I've been working hard in defence because I knew I was going to get a lot of traffic coming my way defending in the front line coming from fullback," he said.
"I want to pride myself on defence.
"I think I went okay today. I had Jack Reed and Alex Glenn by my side which really helped me out."
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